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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Before I address the strikingly similar pictures that accompany this post... I must first offer a little background in the interest of upholding my journalistic integrity to be transparent and what not. We here at the Urban Politico like to read. But more than we like to read we like to discuss. Sometimes those discussions turn into heated and passionate arguments over views we feel strongly about. I'm telling you now this is going to be one of those times. So I want to just jump in and get started by saying:

Don't trust them new niggas over there...

Yes the new nigga I'm talking about is Herman Cain. (Apologies to any and all those who may be offended over my use at the n-word). While Herman Cain may not survive the Presidential political scene much longer, his step onto the national stage and into the public eye has brought much attention and unwanted scrutiny toward the one time GOP frontrunner. When he attended the very first Republican debate -- the one that no one else went to -- that was held in South Carolina in May; Herman Cain was seen as the winner. But no one really knew his name. In a field with only Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Gary Johnson clearly the star of that debate was the well recognized Ron Paul. But he managed to escape obscurity and be seen as the winner of the debate. He went from being "that Black guy running for President" to "Herman Cain? A black guy is running for President on the Republican side?"

The question mark forced those in my industry to do some digging. Who is this man that embraced the Tea Party, Reganomics, and headed a fast-food pizza chain not commonly part of the American ordering lexicon? Who is this man who claims he single-handedly killed Hillary-Care in 1994? Who is this man who was the head of a major lobbying group for several years? Who is this man?

As those questions began to be answered we found out he was an Atlanta businessman with a helluva back story. Born into poverty a mother that worked as a maid a father that worked as a barber and janitor he went to Morehouse College and miraculously created a success of himself with really no help from anyone else. Talk about someone pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and they didn't even have boots. If nothing else you had to admire him.

That's the story that was fed to news viewers, voters and constituents for months. But that is not the whole story. That's not even half of the story. Enter your Urban Politico Team reading. Shady_Grady brought us this enlightening article courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and his high blood pressure. In it the authors, Douglas A. Blackmon and Neil King Jr. Paint a very different picture of the Republican Candidate.

First of all they go in depth about how Herman Cain's father eventually worked as the chauffeur and personal assistant to one of the most powerful men in America, former chairman of Coca Cola Robert W. Woodruff. Cain's father working for Woodruff immediately advanced the status and "wealth" of his humble family even if it was through a subservient position. A position Cain did not want to emulate. What he did want to emulate was having the status (read: money) to do better for himself and his family more along the lines of Mr. Woodruff himself instead of in a noble but lesser position.

The article's author's write:

"Mr. Cain said Mr. Woodruff's wealth impressed on him how powerfully the free market rewards success. His dad's work as a well-paid servant also left its mark. "I wanted to be comfortable differently," he said. "That's what inspired me to make good grades. That's what inspired me to go to college."

That's a nice way to put it. Simply said Herman Cain saw the power of money and became consumed by it. The article reference's Cains want to make $20,000 just so he could have two American Express cards. He didn't participate in any Civil Rights protests -- though he was at the epicenter of the movement in Atlanta -- because he didn't want to get arrested, be shot, or disappoint his father's boss by demonstrating and throwing bottles.

While one former Morehouse student and classmate of Cain's acknowledges a similar sentiment:

"Most of the Morehouse fellows did not participate," said Wesley D. Clement, a classmate of Mr. Cain who is now an eye surgeon in Charlotte, N.C. "Your main target and goal was to prepare yourself for business and life. Not that we were ignorant of what was going on or didn't favor what was going on. But we were not involved in the things that some people would have called more radical at that time."

Another has an entirely different view:

"Horace Bohannon Jr., who sometimes shared lecture notes with Mr. Cain as an underclassman and later became a follower of Stokely Carmichael and his "black power" movement, said he perceived in Mr. Cain a disdain for students who became more deeply involved in the turmoil of those days. "We were hellbent on changing this society and the structure of the South," he said. "There was sort of a resentment toward us by Herman."

No matter what side or whose story you believe it is clear Herman Cain wanted no parts of the Civil Rights movement. He wanted no parts of Dr. King's legacy which he remains staunch in saying his recollection of the man who gave a convocation at his school during his tenure is hazy. But even if you wanted no parts of the civil disobedience around you why be as one of Cain's classmates put it, "resentful."

What is there to resent?

In his own words:

"I wasn't determined to make social change," Mr. Cain said in an interview. "I wanted to earn some change…I wanted to make some money."

If making money was the goal of a Black man in the 1960's then he can only thank the Civil Rights Movement for allowing him to make more than a sharecropper's wage. Cain doesn't thank anyone but himself because he truly believes everything he earned he got on his own possibly even his own birth.

Instead of Cain distantly embracing a movement that has obviously helped earn him the status he has now, he acts as if it never existed even though he at one point considered being a part of it.

His blatant disregard for the social change that allowed him to change his life aligns him more closely with an ignant nigga cartoon character throwing bricks at "Martin Luther so-called Kang" then any other Black Republican who while conservative can acknowledge the impact of Dr. King's legacy and that race relations have improved.

Herman Cain is the living breathing incarnation of Aaron McGruder's infamous and hilariously racially insensitive equal opportunity offender Uncle Ruckus of The Boondocks fame. Ruckus believes in Ruckus. He believes in working hard as a janitor, a bus driver, a movie ticket taker etc. etc. He believes Ronald Reagan is god. Barack Obama is the devil and that White Women are God's gift to men on Earth. Can we say Herman Cain.

Herman Cain began his career in the Navy as a civilian ballistics analysts. After a few odd but successful jobs Cain got a job thanks to nepotism from his father's old boss. It was through his job at Coca Cola and his relationship with the Woodruff family that allowed Cain to branch out into Pilsbury, turn around Godfather's Pizza, manage a bunch of Burger King's and eventually become a motivational speaker, radio talk show host, author, and eventually the head of the NRA. Civil Rights didn't help him do any of that and because of it racism doesn't exist.

Wrong you Uncle Tom ass negro. I agree Civil Rights may not have directly impacted his path in life, but his benefits are a direct result of some Whites either embracing the change happening around them (Civil Rights) or one longing for the good old days and finding solace of the old South in an ignorant boy with money on his mind.

Herman Cain's social conscience for his own community was bought from him at an early age and ever since he's been buying up everything else but that.

Furthermore, Herman Cain's political philosophy -- which is younger than my own and I'm more than half his age -- just developed a few years back. Herman Cain didn't care about politics he cared about money. He registered as a Republican because it was the party of money. Hence the glorification of Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest Presidents in modern American history. Hence his denunciation of President Obama. (You can disagree with someone without being reckless) And as for these sexual harassment scandals along with this 13-year-affair all I'm a say is I don't care what his wife looks like he seems to prefer light, bright and damn near if not already White.

All we need now is for Herman Cain to come out and say, "I got re-vitiligo. That's the reverse of what Michael Jackson got. Lucky bastard." And my comparison would be complete.

So yeah... "Don't trust that new nigga over there." Why: Because he fails to acknowledge doors others have opened for him. His arrogance and ego cloud his judgement, muddle his thoughts and makes a mess of his words. He'd rather hire his way through life throwing money at a problem that can't be solved monetarily. Money didn't fix race relations in this country and it still hasn't. (President Obama and Herman Cain are both part of the 1 percent but they couldn't pay a tried and true redneck to vote for them if they were Steve Jobs -- may he rest in peace -- wealthy.) And while he may be a smart man with a knack for turning around failed businesses his lack of care for those that struggle:

like the employees he didn't want to pay more when minimum wage increased

the employees he didn't want to pay benefits for when Hillar-Care came before Congress

like the unemployed he said were unemployed because they wanted to be

Prove him to be another crab in the barrel negro more concerned with his own success than anyone else's Black or White. A pawn for a puppet master to play with, like Rush Limbaugh who can play the race card for Cain but Cain can't play it for himself. Herman Cain is a singing and dancing, shucking and jiving, Sambo and Coon who thinks the jokes on us that he Cakewalked through life, when really the jokes on him because we've all escaped our chains and are wondering why he went back in.

So say it with me one more time... "Don't trust that new nigga over there."

Questions:

1. Is Herman Cain Uncle Ruckus or a more subdued Uncle Tom?

2. Knowing Herman Cain's full background does he have a valid reason to feel the way he does about the unemployed the economy and his aggrandized sense of self?

3. If you answered yes to question 2 is it plausible to believe every minority in America could achieve the same sole/nepotism success of Herman Cain. If you answered no then further explain yourself.

Before I address the strikingly similar pictures that accompany this post... I must first offer a little background in the interest of upholding my journalistic integrity to be transparent and what not. We here at the Urban Politico like to read. But more than we like to read we like to discuss. Sometimes those discussions turn into heated and passionate arguments over views we feel strongly about. I'm telling you now this is going to be one of those times. So I want to just jump in and get started by saying:

Don't trust them new niggas over there...

Yes the new nigga I'm talking about is Herman Cain. (Apologies to any and all those who may be offended over my use at the n-word). While Herman Cain may not survive the Presidential political scene much longer, his step onto the national stage and into the public eye has brought much attention and unwanted scrutiny toward the one time GOP frontrunner. When he attended the very first Republican debate -- the one that no one else went to -- that was held in South Carolina in May; Herman Cain was seen as the winner. But no one really knew his name. In a field with only Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Gary Johnson clearly the star of that debate was the well recognized Ron Paul. But he managed to escape obscurity and be seen as the winner of the debate. He went from being "that Black guy running for President" to "Herman Cain? A black guy is running for President on the Republican side?"

The question mark forced those in my industry to do some digging. Who is this man that embraced the Tea Party, Reganomics, and headed a fast-food pizza chain not commonly part of the American ordering lexicon? Who is this man who claims he single-handedly killed Hillary-Care in 1994? Who is this man who was the head of a major lobbying group for several years? Who is this man?

As those questions began to be answered we found out he was an Atlanta businessman with a helluva back story. Born into poverty a mother that worked as a maid a father that worked as a barber and janitor he went to Morehouse College and miraculously created a success of himself with really no help from anyone else. Talk about someone pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and they didn't even have boots. If nothing else you had to admire him.

That's the story that was fed to news viewers, voters and constituents for months. But that is not the whole story. That's not even half of the story. Enter your Urban Politico Team reading. Shady_Grady brought us this enlightening article courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and his high blood pressure. In it the authors, Douglas A. Blackmon and Neil King Jr. Paint a very different picture of the Republican Candidate.

First of all they go in depth about how Herman Cain's father eventually worked as the chauffeur and personal assistant to one of the most powerful men in America, former chairman of Coca Cola Robert W. Woodruff. Cain's father working for Woodruff immediately advanced the status and "wealth" of his humble family even if it was through a subservient position. A position Cain did not want to emulate. What he did want to emulate was having the status (read: money) to do better for himself and his family more along the lines of Mr. Woodruff himself instead of in a noble but lesser position.

The article's author's write:

"Mr. Cain said Mr. Woodruff's wealth impressed on him how powerfully the free market rewards success. His dad's work as a well-paid servant also left its mark. "I wanted to be comfortable differently," he said. "That's what inspired me to make good grades. That's what inspired me to go to college."

That's a nice way to put it. Simply said Herman Cain saw the power of money and became consumed by it. The article reference's Cains want to make $20,000 just so he could have two American Express cards. He didn't participate in any Civil Rights protests -- though he was at the epicenter of the movement in Atlanta -- because he didn't want to get arrested, be shot, or disappoint his father's boss by demonstrating and throwing bottles.

While one former Morehouse student and classmate of Cain's acknowledges a similar sentiment:

"Most of the Morehouse fellows did not participate," said Wesley D. Clement, a classmate of Mr. Cain who is now an eye surgeon in Charlotte, N.C. "Your main target and goal was to prepare yourself for business and life. Not that we were ignorant of what was going on or didn't favor what was going on. But we were not involved in the things that some people would have called more radical at that time."

Another has an entirely different view:

"Horace Bohannon Jr., who sometimes shared lecture notes with Mr. Cain as an underclassman and later became a follower of Stokely Carmichael and his "black power" movement, said he perceived in Mr. Cain a disdain for students who became more deeply involved in the turmoil of those days. "We were hellbent on changing this society and the structure of the South," he said. "There was sort of a resentment toward us by Herman."

No matter what side or whose story you believe it is clear Herman Cain wanted no parts of the Civil Rights movement. He wanted no parts of Dr. King's legacy which he remains staunch in saying his recollection of the man who gave a convocation at his school during his tenure is hazy. But even if you wanted no parts of the civil disobedience around you why be as one of Cain's classmates put it, "resentful."

What is there to resent?

In his own words:

"I wasn't determined to make social change," Mr. Cain said in an interview. "I wanted to earn some change…I wanted to make some money."

If making money was the goal of a Black man in the 1960's then he can only thank the Civil Rights Movement for allowing him to make more than a sharecropper's wage. Cain doesn't thank anyone but himself because he truly believes everything he earned he got on his own possibly even his own birth.

Instead of Cain distantly embracing a movement that has obviously helped earn him the status he has now, he acts as if it never existed even though he at one point considered being a part of it.

His blatant disregard for the social change that allowed him to change his life aligns him more closely with an ignant nigga cartoon character throwing bricks at "Martin Luther so-called Kang" then any other Black Republican who while conservative can acknowledge the impact of Dr. King's legacy and that race relations have improved.

Herman Cain is the living breathing incarnation of Aaron McGruder's infamous and hilariously racially insensitive equal opportunity offender Uncle Ruckus of The Boondocks fame. Ruckus believes in Ruckus. He believes in working hard as a janitor, a bus driver, a movie ticket taker etc. etc. He believes Ronald Reagan is god. Barack Obama is the devil and that White Women are God's gift to men on Earth. Can we say Herman Cain.

Herman Cain began his career in the Navy as a civilian ballistics analysts. After a few odd but successful jobs Cain got a job thanks to nepotism from his father's old boss. It was through his job at Coca Cola and his relationship with the Woodruff family that allowed Cain to branch out into Pilsbury, turn around Godfather's Pizza, manage a bunch of Burger King's and eventually become a motivational speaker, radio talk show host, author, and eventually the head of the NRA. Civil Rights didn't help him do any of that and because of it racism doesn't exist.

Wrong you Uncle Tom ass negro. I agree Civil Rights may not have directly impacted his path in life, but his benefits are a direct result of some Whites either embracing the change happening around them (Civil Rights) or one longing for the good old days and finding solace of the old South in an ignorant boy with money on his mind.

Herman Cain's social conscience for his own community was bought from him at an early age and ever since he's been buying up everything else but that.

Furthermore, Herman Cain's political philosophy -- which is younger than my own and I'm more than half his age -- just developed a few years back. Herman Cain didn't care about politics he cared about money. He registered as a Republican because it was the party of money. Hence the glorification of Ronald Reagan as one of the greatest Presidents in modern American history. Hence his denunciation of President Obama. (You can disagree with someone without being reckless) And as for these sexual harassment scandals along with this 13-year-affair all I'm a say is I don't care what his wife looks like he seems to prefer light, bright and damn near if not already White.

All we need now is for Herman Cain to come out and say, "I got re-vitiligo. That's the reverse of what Michael Jackson got. Lucky bastard." And my comparison would be complete.

So yeah... "Don't trust that new nigga over there." Why: Because he fails to acknowledge doors others have opened for him. His arrogance and ego cloud his judgement, muddle his thoughts and makes a mess of his words. He'd rather hire his way through life throwing money at a problem that can't be solved monetarily. Money didn't fix race relations in this country and it still hasn't. (President Obama and Herman Cain are both part of the 1 percent but they couldn't pay a tried and true redneck to vote for them if they were Steve Jobs -- may he rest in peace -- wealthy.) And while he may be a smart man with a knack for turning around failed businesses his lack of care for those that struggle:

like the employees he didn't want to pay more when minimum wage increased

the employees he didn't want to pay benefits for when Hillar-Care came before Congress

like the unemployed he said were unemployed because they wanted to be

Prove him to be another crab in the barrel negro more concerned with his own success than anyone else's Black or White. A pawn for a puppet master to play with, like Rush Limbaugh who can play the race card for Cain but Cain can't play it for himself. Herman Cain is a singing and dancing, shucking and jiving, Sambo and Coon who thinks the jokes on us that he Cakewalked through life, when really the jokes on him because we've all escaped our chains and are wondering why he went back in.

So say it with me one more time... "Don't trust that new nigga over there."

Questions:

1. Is Herman Cain Uncle Ruckus or a more subdued Uncle Tom?

2. Knowing Herman Cain's full background does he have a valid reason to feel the way he does about the unemployed the economy and his aggrandized sense of self?

3. If you answered yes to question 2 is it plausible to believe every minority in America could achieve the same sole/nepotism success of Herman Cain. If you answered no then further explain yourself.

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